PROCEEDINGS OF THE 16TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION (Vol 2)
2013
Denver, Colorado
Perspectives that some mathematicians bring to university course materials intended for prospective elementary teachers
Page: 2-138
The undergraduate mathematical preparation of elementary teachers often occurs through mathematics departments. This study looks at the issue of teacher education as a site for collective work between mathematicians and mathematics educators. It works on a dual agenda of understanding what is involved, on the one hand, in using instructional support materials, and on the other hand, in creating usable instructional support materials. We analyzed three mathematicians' reviews of materials intended to teach mathematical knowledge for teaching to prospective elementary teachers. The analysis suggests that the mathematical issues most salient to these mathematicians concerned the coherence of the mathematical curriculum to be taught, the use and choice of mathematical representations, and what features of mathematical objects to make explicit. We discuss implications of this observation for development of materials for the mathematical preparation of teachers.